The Grind

Submitted by ekendradasa on Tue, 2012-12-04 15:31

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Author:

Ekendra dasa

Ekendra dasa here, to tell you about what life is like sitting in my chair at Krishna.com. Basically, lately I've been bringing our Calendar up to date (no pun intended), and that means making sure every event on the Vaishnava Calendar that we have something to say about 1) shows up on the Krishna.com Calendar and 2) includes some introductory information about the subject, including links to other articles on Krishna.com and to verses in Srimad-Bhagavatam or Chaitanya Charitamrita, where the subject is discussed in some detail.

We know there are other sites that focus more on subjects such as the Vaishnava Acharyas or Festivals and Holy Days, but our aim is to give those without any previous knowledge or understanding of the significance of such personalities and festivals some background information and places to go for further reading. We think you'll like our new calendar once you check it out.

Also I've been sending out emails (to a select group of subscribers) on a weekly basis on the subject of Prabhupada Meditations. These sometimes include a featured paragraph or two from a recent favorite Bhaktivedanta Purport, or from Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita, in which I focus on one aspect of Srila Prabhupada's personality, significance, and message each week. I also add a photo from our huge Gallery of Srila Prabhupada photos to add a (hopefully) relevant visual element to each email. To subscribe to the Srila Prabhupada Meditations email list, click here and follow the instructions.

But the biggest project I've been helping to work on is our new Intro section, which we hope will help serve the needs of our first-time or newer visitors by giving the most introductory information on many of the concepts, personalities, and practices that make up the culture of Krishna consciousness. to give one example, click here to read our latest introductory page(s) on the subject of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Each one of these "Wiki pages"—as we call them—goes through a series of stages. First, we get together and brainstorm everything we can imagine might be of primary importance or interest to a person who may be entirely unfamiliar with the subject we're working on. Then we draft a few brief paragraphs incorporating things from our brainstorm sessions. Then we gather Source Notes from Srila Prabhupada's books that directly support the points we raise in the intro text. Finally, we gather related articles, videos, and FAQs on the subject, and make all of the above easily clickable using a series of tabs which the reader finds below the intro text.

Sounds easy, right? Well, yes, in the sense that spiritual life is easier than material life, because material life is impossible. At each stage of our process for making new pages, we ask ourselves—and each other—whether what we're saying makes sense, whether it would make sense to someone who's new to the subject, and whether we'd feel good about sharing it with the world. If the answer to any of the above questions is "No," then it's back to the drawing board. The process takes a while.

We hope you will take a look, and we especially hope you'll leave comments. How else will we know how we're doing? Thanks, ED